Del Rosario to visit China amid spat

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario. ARNEL DIRECTO/AFP 

MANILA, Philippines—Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario will be on a two-day official visit to China this week amid rising tensions over the disputed Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Del Rosario will fly to Beijing Thursday on the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.

The Philippine official will meet with Vice President Xi Jinping and his counterpart, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. The DFA said the trip “is intended to advance bilateral relations.”

Del Rosario said he “expects to discuss the West Philippine Sea issue although this particular issue in not the sum total of Philippines’ relations with China.”

He is expected to discuss a wide range of topics including trade, investment, culture, tourism, defense cooperation, education, science and technology, people-to-people relations and cooperation against transnational crimes.

Manila and Beijing have signed more than 100 agreements over the past 36 years of diplomatic relations and the two countries “will be discussing ways to move these forward during his visit,” the DFA said.

The invitation came amid souring diplomatic relations over the two countries’ conflicting claims in the potentially resource-rich Spratly Islands.

The Philippines has accused China of at least nine intrusions in Manila-claimed territories in the Spratlys, opening fire on Filipino fishermen, shadowing an oil exploration vessel employed by a Philippine firm, and putting up structures in the areas it named Kalayaan Group of Islands.

China has denied all these accusations as it maintains indisputable sovereignty over the entire Spratly archipelago, which it calls the Nansha Islands.

On Tuesday, the DFA in an internal memo banned Chinese embassy first secretary Li Yonsheng from attending meetings in the foreign department, accusing him of verbally abusing a Filipino official at a June meeting on the Spraltys issue.

In a barbed reaction to the unsigned statement, Chinese embassy spokesman Sun Yi said Wednesday: “We don’t want to comment on the remarks by someone who hides his or her name.”

The Philippines and China, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, each claim all or part of the West Philippine Sea—particularly the Spratlys, a chain of islets in the area that is believed to sit on vast mineral resources.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks, with the Philippines and Vietnam voicing alarm at what they say are increasingly aggressive Chinese actions in the contested territories. With Agence France-Presse